Fifteen-year-old Holly Kim is the copyeditor for her high school's newspaper. When she accidentally submits an article that rips everyone to shreds, she gets her own column and rants her way through the school year. Can she survive homecoming, mean-girl cliques, jocks, secret admirers, Valentine's Day, and other high school embarrassments, all while struggling to balance her family's traditional Korean values?

In this hilarious debut, Maurene Goo takes a fresh look at trying to fit in without conforming to what's considered "normal" in high school and how to manage parental expectations without losing one's individuality...or being driven insane.

Since You Asked was Laugh Out Loud HILARIOUS, entertaining, and enchanting book. It's full of great characters, friendship, family, and a girl who needs to answer our questions, one sarcastic-realistic column at a time ;)

When I heard about Since You Asked I was already sold on reading it. Why? Korean girl *never read about a girl in a Korean family* whom lands a newspaper column by accident?! Yeah I want to read and it said it was humorous, you know i love a good laugh :) I remember the reading the first page and literally spitting out in laughter! I woke my sister up but I had to read it to her *so we could both laugh*

"GIRLS!" mom hollered from the bathroom.
"WHAT? You're the one who makes us drink this every morning! Don't you know Asians are naturally lactose intolerant! I hollered back. - Holly page 2!

and that was just the start. Throughout the entire novel I found great sarcastic or funny quotes on almost EVERY PAGE! It was crazy how many bookmarks I have on the book but it seriously surprised me in the funny department. It also helped that Holly was SO defiant, and sarcastic. She was like every teen, she wants to be her own self but is kinda limited by her traditional korean family *whom is crazy & fun*.

And that's where Holly's friends Carrie, David, and Liz come in. I have never wanted to steal friends as much as I have in this book. Holly's friends are such an eclectic group. Carrie's the daughter of hippies, hence her being a hippie :) Then there was David, who was chinese-irish X_X Can I just say I may have developed a book crush on him! He's like a hipster, smarty pants, beanie wearing skateboarder. Then there's Liz, super rich and model gorgeous yet she hates the populars at school and acts snobbish but as Holly said, "You have to get to know her and you can get past the snobby" LOL, but in the end THEY ALL GREW ON ME! I got so excited when they were all together and hung out because they were a fun and entertaining bunch :D

Now Holly get's this spot on the paper *by accident* she's actually a copyeditor and she was checking over a piece and got bored. So what does she do? SHE HOLLY-FY'S IT! She makes it into a sarcastic and realistic letter to the entire school O.O YEAH, CAN YOU SAY KILL ME! Well since she didn't get into *too much* trouble she's offered to do more! And does she. She really lets it rip and what i loved about this wasn that we got to read her columns and there were even "Letters to the Editor" pages COOL! There were also drawings and pictures :3

There was a smidge of romance in the, I'm your secret stalker admirer way! it was cute but at the same time SO frustrating because you think it's this guy, but OH WAIT! I could be that guy >_< There were 3 possible guys, 2 she knew and 1 she hadn't known. Each one was giving hints or being flirtish but in the end it wasn't ANY of them and that was like...

OVERALL: This was such an EPIC tale of a girl growing up in a strict Korean house with fun friends and learning that it's okay to speak your mind. If you want a book to take to the beach, THIS ONE IS IT! You'll literally be laughing and wanting to share your book with someone. I LOVED it and will HAVE to read more by the fabulous Maureen Goo! YOU MUST READ THIS...or else....O.O

PICTURE TIME:

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Maurene Goo was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, where she navigated her childhood by practicing extreme bossy lord-dom over her many cousins.

She studied communication at the University of California, San Diego, and received a master’s degree in publishing and writing at Emerson College.